History WebVideo / Petscop

** The Tool. It is a giant object that serves as MrExposition which Paul can ask questions to, and several other smaller versions of Tool appear throughout the game serving various purposes.

* BystanderSyndrome: In Petscop 5, Pink Tool's responses beg Paul to turn off the [=PlayStation=], and tell him that Marvin picks tool up and hurts an unnamed individual while it continues to run. Paul seems to shrug the warnings off as the game pretending to be haunted, and it's implied that Paul keeps the console on for the entire series, the most egregious example being when he leaves the game alone for four hours, recording it the entire time, to fulfill Tool's earlier request to keep watching the windmill.

** Petscop 11 has Paul try to open the door to the House after unlocking it, only to be told his [[ArmlessBiped character]] still cannot open doors, just like what happened in the first video when he tried to open a closed door.

** In Petscop 10, Tool's answer to Paul's question "Where was the windmill?" is censored. This is never revealed, unlike the others, but it is hinted to have been a set of coordinates that were too close to wherever Paul is.

** Tool is red, unless it switches to Pink Tool, [[CaptainObvious in which it is pink]]. [[spoiler:In Petscop 22, Paul's name is written in red.]]

** The Wife/Anna is blue.

** [[spoiler:The unknown character in Petscop 9-12, heavily implied to be Rainer or another developer, addresses the player(s) and appears to have a conversation with the Wife in the default white color of the text box, and might be the writer of at least a few of the short messages in black text in the pause menu.]]

** In the House in Petscop 11, deep, indescribable speech plays in the background.

** The "Windmill Incident" of 1977 mentioned in Petscop 9. It's not really said what happened, besides that the windmill disappeared and the Wife's sister didn't come back with them, either. However, the video implies that it was a crime (which is interpreted to be a murder), and that Marvin had a hand in it.

** Tool's answer to "Where was the windmill?" remains censored but is implied by dialogue to be a pair of co-ordinates [[spoiler:that is close enough to Paul's location]].

** For most of the first few episodes, the game is eerie but not necessarily disturbing; Paul is simply exploring a dimly-lit space under the main game, with the occasional momentary surprise or cryptic event. Pink Tool's first line in Petscop 5 ''immediately'' puts that to rest.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/title_screen.png]]

''Petscop'' is a series of Website/YouTube videos chronicling someone's bizarre experiences with a mysterious and unfinished UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation}} game known as the titular [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZKQv0ZFHpeIUkOtNjtq4KA "Petscop."]] The first video was uploaded on March 12, 2017.

->''Alright, so, uh... this is just to, um, prove to you that I'm not lying about this game that I found...''

** Michael Hammond is a faded reddish pinkish colour. [[spoiler:Petscop 17 associates Lina with the same color.]]

''Petscop'' is a series of Website/YouTube videos chronicling someone's bizarre experiences with a mysterious and unfinished UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation}} game known as the titular [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZKQv0ZFHpeIUkOtNjtq4KA "Petscop".]] The first video was uploaded on March 12, 2017.

The series begins with the uploader of the videos, known as "Paul", saying he found the game with a strange note attached and wants to show a secret he discovered. At first, the game starts off normally, with Paul traversing through a colorful and cheery world with the goal of [[GottaCatchEmAll collecting]] the creatures known as [[{{Mons}} "pets"]]. However, once Paul inputs a code written on the note, it becomes clear that there is much more to be uncovered about the game...

* AerithAndBob: Some of the pets have strange names like Pen, Wavey, Roneth, and Toneth... but then you have Amber and Randice.

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:Petscop 19 makes reference to "Daniel's game", suggesting that he is a creator of Petscop, possibly Rainer himself. It's not explicitly confirmed, though.]]

* AntiPoopSocking: The game's pause screen leaves the rather goofy message of "Your butt leaves a cavity in the chair," at the end of Petscop 20, which is likely an attempt to get people to stand up and do something else if they've been playing for a while. [[spoiler:This likely ends up referring to the "ghost room", where players are presumably trapped in a room with only a chair and Petscop.]]

** "Newmaker", the title of Rainer and the PlayerCharacter, and the "Newmaker Plane", the DarkWorld below the Gift Plane and primary setting of the series.

* BookEnds: [[spoiler:In the second video, Paul tells his friend that "we can investigate this together". TheStinger has Tiara/Belle, the friend, saying the same thing to Paul at the very end.]]
* BreatherEpisode: Petscop 21 is simply a recording of Care playing the game and "dancing" around in-game. It turns out that the video [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8F-S1MT-QdM syncs up]] with the Music/AceOfBase song "The Sign". Considering the [[WhamEpisode numerous lore-heavy episodes released on the same day]], it's definitely a relief.

** In [[TheStinger the secret ending]] of the Soundtrack video, [[spoiler:Belle says "Do You Remember Being Born?" and "We can investigate this together", two lines that were featured in Video 2]].
* CaptainObvious: When Paul happens upon Michael Hammond's grave, marked 1988-1995, he remarks "that's a dead kid".

** In Petscop 1, Paul's note describes how to "walk downstairs and, in the bottom, turn right instead of proceeding" to become a "shadow monster man". Paul ignores this, instead repeating a cheat code to enter the Newmaker Plane. Eight videos later, [[spoiler:Paul finally tries the original instructions in the entrance to the lower level of the barn and becomes a [[{{LivingShadow}} shadow monster man]], allowing him to progress into the windmill]].

** Michael Hammond, who lived from 1988 to 1995, which would make him six or seven years old at the time of death. His tombstone is found in video 2, along with the inscription "Mike was a gift".

** There's a pet who's kept in a cage, and is awarded for staying there. Her description is "Amber is a young ball. She's afraid to leave home. If her home is good, this is not a problem. She is very heavy, and that makes her life a little harder, as well as yours. What's the safest place you can put her in? You should start thinking about that." [[{{Foreshadowing}} In hindsight]], the reactive attachment disorder themes were there from the beginning. [[spoiler:And to bring it home, there are human children later available as "pets".]]
** "Child Library accepts '''people'''." Paul gives Care N.L.M.--a haggard-looking child--to the Child Library despite knowing that he can turn her into Care A, a happier version. It can easily be seen as an allegory for (adoptive) parents who "give up" on their child and "give them back" rather than raise and treat them properly. He immediately enters her room and "catches" her again, suggesting that he was simply testing the Child Library’s return slot.

* DoubleTake: [[spoiler:Marvin]] does one in Petscop 20. The picture of the [[spoiler: windmill]] is the only one he looks at twice - he approaches it, examines it, exits out, stands there for a few seconds, and then examines it again. The scene cuts before we get to see what he does afterwards. [[spoiler:Given his involvement with the windmill, this is telling.]]

* ExactWords: For a long time, the description of the Petscop channel (believed to have been written by the mysterious Family running the channel) read as follows: "The purpose of this [=YouTube=] channel is to preserve and display the recordings within the video game "Petscop" while keeping some of their content private." Note the use of the phrase "recordings ''within'' the video game", rather than "recordings ''of'' the video game". [[spoiler:That's because, as shown in Petscop 14, and again during the Easter 2019 uploads, the game records the controller inputs of everyone who plays the game, and has a very large number of previous recordings stored within it, including some of Marvin and Care.]]

*** At 2:03, the text became [[spoiler:"[[https://i.redd.it/qi2miyvkbnt21.png Everything is a trick]]".]]

** In Petscop 23, at 4:12, some pink text can be seen that reads [[spoiler:"Push bed against hidden door", which sound ominous considering what happens immediately after...]]

* HauntedTechnology: Many fans believe this is the source of the game's strangeness, but Paul himself [[SubvertedTrope subverts this trope]], expressing his belief that it's not "ghosts", but that the happenings are pre-recorded. It was left ambiguous [[spoiler:until Paul himself seems to be mentally affected by the game looping and resetting]]. As of Petscop 14, [[spoiler:Paul has encountered an in-game conversation that he remembers having in real life during the previous year, negating any possibility of coincidence. Despite his insistence that it has to be a prank, he quickly looks up how to modify a CD-R and is disappointed to find that doing so in a way that would explain the existence of the conversation would have been impossible]].

* LivingShadow: The "Shadow Monster Man", implied to be Marvin. In early episodes, he was only seen as a pitch black figure roaming the Newmaker Plane. In Petscop 9, [[spoiler:Paul glitches the game's lighting system to temporarily become one, gaining access to the Windmill]].
* LudicrousPrecision: Petscop 12 reveals how long the game has been played down to the second. Or, to be more specific, [[spoiler: ''553758221 seconds or 153822 hours.'' That's over ''17 years''.]]
* MadnessMantra: Toneth’s description ends like this, with his name being repeated over and over again.

** The song played in Petscop 11 (which Paul also hums in Petscop 14) is "Care's melody".
** The song played in Petscop 23 is "Paul's melody".
* MeaningfulEcho: When [[spoiler:Marvin kidnaps Care]], the text says "Care left the room", just like the text in video 2 that said the same thing.

* MickeyMousing: Petscop 21 syncs up perfectly with the classic Music/AceOfBase hit "The Sign".
* MirrorRoutine / TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf:

** [[spoiler: As the series goes on, the player character in the “DEMO” recordings starts to precisely mimic Paul’s earlier actions. The first obvious example is in Petscop 9: in the first scene, the demo player lowers the number on the treadmill with the exact same timing that Paul pulled the petals off of the giant daisy in Petscop 2. The demo deviating by lowering the count to -1 gives Paul the hint he needs to catch Care NLM. Later, Paul realizes that mimicking what the green-headed man does helps him make progress, but he also starts falling into new loops that he doesn’t seem to recognize...]]

** A small part of Petscop 9 involves "Paul" going back to the original beginning of the game, before he entered the Newmaker Plane. [[spoiler: At least, it ''looks'' like Even Care. Pay attention, and you'll notice that a few things are a bit off now...]]

* NonSequitur: The incredibly disturbing description of Toneth, complete with MadnessMantra, ends with the words, "it's yucky outside".

** How Michael Hammond died isn't known either. There was something that happened between Marvin and Rainer, which is hinted to be related to this. [[spoiler:The way that the inscription on Michael Hammond's grave lingers onscreen in Marvin's gameplay could be interpreted as accusatory, implying that he may have played a part in Mike’s death.]]
** [[spoiler: The circumstances of Lina's death are also unknown, but its heavily implied she was run over by a car while no one was paying attention to her.]]

** In Petscop 23, [[spoiler:Marvin asks Paul which room he is in. After getting the answer, he says "Thanks Here I Come". Paul responds fearfully and then both are away from the game for a long time. After whatever happened to him, Paul picks up the controller and pleads to Tiara with a single "Help".]]
* OminousVisualGlitch

--->'''Paul''': What the fuck?

--->[[spoiler: '''Marvin''']]: Thanks. [[spoiler:[[PreAssKickingOneLiner Here. I. Come.]]]]

** The CreditsMedley is just the bass and drum parts of the song "level1".

** Petscop 23 gives us Tiara's last name. [[spoiler:It's Leskowitz, which is ''Paul's'' last name. The note he finds with her name has her referring to herself as "Mommy".]]

* SelfDeprecation: The creator of the series is known as Tony. In the Book of Baby Names, Tony is credited as a "dummy".

** "Sit here for the present", which Marvin says in Petscop 15, is a reference to ''[[Literature/RamonaQuimby Ramona the Pest]]'' by Creator/BeverlyCleary. This book is referenced again in Petscop 24, where the name "Ramona" is linked to "pest".

** In Petscop 24, there is a list of names, each associated with a word. Mike is associated with "painter". mike_painter65 is one of the posters in the forum thread that comprises the text of ''Literature/CandleCove''.
* SoundTest: [[spoiler: Shown in Petscop 17.]]

* TakeThatAudience: A debate ensued over the final scene of Petscop 13, in which Paul is instructed to leave the [=PlayStation=] on, as he has completed the game. Fans theorized he was either exiting or being forced into a car. In Petscop 22, at one point Paul says, "What? Why would I be in a car? I'm playing Petscop. Why would I be playing Petscop in a car?". Subverted in that when the creator added in subtitles for Petscop 13, [[spoiler:it clearly says that a car door is opening and closing at the end of the video.]]

* TroubleEntendre: The Family, after taking over the Petscop [=YouTube=] channel, say that Paul is recording himself at their "strong suggestion", and that although he had "issues with the arrangement, these have finally been settled". It is never clarified what this means, but given that Paul does not seem to trust the Family, it is indicated that [[spoiler:they are holding him captive somewhere and forcing him to play the game]].

** He plays "Love Me, Love Me Not" with a daisy, affecting Care in a different room. It lands on "Love Me Not", leaving her a crying, disfigured mess.
** Later, it's revealed he has to "lie" by manipulating the flower to have another petal. [[spoiler:He is able to catch her, and the text box explains that while it may be a lie that someone loves her, "it may not be a lie forever". He later abandons her in the Children Library, then enters her room there and picks her back up, like an item.]]

** In Petscop 5, Paul is asking the tool questions, when it suddenly turns pink. Paul tries to ask a question and he get this: "TURN OFF PLAYSTATION" He asks why, and it responds with "MARVIN PICKS UP TOOL HURTS ME WHEN PLAYSTATION ON". This is a disturbing response, implying someone is getting hurt when the [=PlayStation=] is on. But Paul ignores it. It's heavily implied that the [=PlayStation=] has been on the entire series. Paul is letting this Suffering continue. The game itself supports this suffering. At the end of Petscop 13, after all the Pets are caught, Paul gets a message, one that ends with this: "Please leave the [=PlayStation=] on when you leave. You can stand up now." Also In Petscop 16, This Message appears: "No controller input has been detected for a very long time. Family, neighbors, police, (or whoever,) [KEEP GAME CONSOLE RUNNING,] Call provided phone number."

-->Well, it could have changed between then and 2004. [[spoiler:After 2004 my mom had it, purportedly.]]

--->'''Paul''': ...when I found [[spoiler:my room]]... I was shocked at first, but it made sense. Especially considering where I found the game in the first place... that it'd be [[spoiler:tied in some way to me through you]].

--->'''Paul''': ...I think... ...I think... ...I think... ...that was based... off of a... conversation... that [[spoiler:[[AndThatLittleGirlWasMe I had last year on my birthday]]]]...

--->'''Marvin''': Thanks. [[spoiler:[[OhCrap Here I come]].]]

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The pets are initially referred to as "''somebody'' that you love". Upon Paul's second visit to the Gift Plane, however, the sign has changed to saying to pick "'''one''' that you love". Also, the Child Library will not accept most of them, as it only accepts people- the three versions of Care are the only thing it will accept.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: In Petscop 9, Paul says this when he is finally able to enter the windmill after his character became a "shadow monster man", when previously the windmill would disappear whenever he went near it.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: The original Petscop often forced Paul to wait long amounts of time in order to trigger certain events (e.g. visiting a room in the Child Library, entering the cellar door, going through the tunnel to the school). Giftscop allows the player to bypass these by entering certain commands corresponding to events, allowing the events to trigger without the wait.

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: Though the game contains a few references to the real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candace_Newmaker Candace Newmaker case]], it becomes clear that those references are used as allusions or stand-ins to give in-game people, places and items specific contexts. Unfortunately, this has also led many casual observers thinking that Petscop is just "that child abuse game," especially after the original Game Theory video came out.

** Petscop 17 through 20 are essentially [[UpToEleven reveal after reveal after reveal]], including [[spoiler:a SoundTest option, Care's full name (Carrie Mark), the names of various family members, the windmill girl's identity (Lina Leskowitz), recordings of at least ''48'' different people who took part in Petscop, and the censored objects]]. We also see what happened during [[spoiler:Marvin]]'s playthrough of the game: [[spoiler:after entering in the secret code to access the Newmaker Plane, the game/Rainer taunts him, stating that he's going to remain there until he uncovers the unmarked grave that Rainer is looking for]].

* HauntedTechnology: Many fans believe this is the source of the game's strangeness, but Paul himself [[SubvertedTrope subverts this trope]], expressing his belief that it's not "ghosts", but that the happenings are pre-recorded. It was left ambiguous [[spoiler:until Paul himself seems to be mentally affected by the game looping and resetting]]. As of Petscop 14, [[spoiler:Paul has encountered an in-game conversation that he remembers having in real life shortly before he acquired the game, negating any possibility of coincidence. Despite his insistence that it has to be a prank, he quickly looks up how to modify a CD-R and is disappointed to find that doing so in a way that would explain the existence of the conversation would have been impossible]].

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: The school area shifts the perspective from third-person to first-person, though the controls and mechanics are still the same.

** Throughout the series, some text appears to be fluttering. The most famous example is in the first installment, when Paul is putting in his name, and the button options are below. The Triangle button is shown to mean "Go Back" this seems like it means if you press that button, you'll go back, but the triangle is fluttering, almost like it's scared. This can be seen as a warning, telling the player to go back.

** [[spoiler:The face on Mike's grave]] appears to randomly move throughout the series.
** Near the end of Petscop 5, when Paul is wrapping up, his avatar's face and body and the area around it suddenly glitches a bit, and it kind of looks like the avatar's face is melted.
** In Petscop 15 around 2:50, when the avatar is sitting on a chair, for a split second, a small amount of a copy of the avatar appears to the right of it.

** In Petscop 23, [[spoiler:Marvin delivers one when Paul plays wrong the needle piano]].

** Petscop 11 reveals a good chunk of the backstory when the house and school are finally discovered. [[spoiler:In the house, a note left by Care's mother explains that "he" may come around after dark and pleads with the intended reader to stay overnight if possible. Later that night, [[AbusiveParents Marvin]] abducts Care.]]

* LudicrousPrecision: Petscop 12 reveals how long the game has been played down to the second. Or, to be more specific, [[spoiler: ''553758221 seconds or 153822 hours.'' That's over ''17 years''.]] Justified as the game is probably reading off the system's internal clock, which has the capacity to be just that accurate.

* CensorBox: Whoever is uploading to the channel is censoring objects and presumably cutting out footage. Petscop 7 ended with a message listing objects to be censored in future videos and that "they" can't state their reasons for doing so at the time.

** In Petscop 14, something on the wall of Care's house is censored. [[spoiler:Petscop 20 revealed this to be one of Marvin's stenciled murals.]] At the very end of the video, when re-entering the parents' bedroom, the text box at the bottom of the screen is censored, prompting Paul to drop a very concerned "Fuck."

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_therapy "Rebirthing"]], and, related, "Do you remember being born?", a question frequently asked by the Quitter.
* ArmlessBiped: Guardian, Marvin, and the Quitter are all armless - they actually share an identical armless torso sprite. At one point it's mentioned (and later confirmed) that Guardian doesn't know how to open doors due to this. A popular theory is that they're wearing straitjackets.

* InterfaceScrew: In Petscop 7, while in the Quitter's Room, Paul hears the usual ominous short chiptune from his left speaker and goes to find the Quitter gone.

** Mirrors, and mirrored actions, are a repeating motif. The Quitter Room has a girl on one side and Paul on the other, their movements synced, ''most of the time''. [[spoiler:In Petscop 12, the Mirror Routine incident from Petscop 10 is repeated, only from the other person's perspective; they now sport Guardian's face, while the original Guardian sports a pyramid head.]]

* AnachronismStew: Despite being a [=PS1=] game released in 1997, Petscop has functions that could not have possibly been in a console game of the time.

* ExactWords: For a long time, the description of the Petscop channel (believed to have been written by the mysterious Family running the channel) read as follows: "The purpose of this [=YouTube=] channel is to preserve and display the recordings within the video game "Petscop" while keeping some of their content private." Note the use of the phrase "recordings ''within'' the video game", rather than "recordings ''of'' the video game". [[spoiler:That's because, as revealed in the Easter 2019 uploads, the game actually contains a hidden recording function with a huge amount of stored data on past players, including Marvin and Care.]]

* BystanderSyndrome: In Petscop 5, Pink TOOL's responses beg Paul to turn off the [=PlayStation=], and tell him that Marvin picks TOOL up and hurts an unnamed individual while it continues to run. Paul seems to shrug the warnings off as the game pretending to be haunted, and it's implied that Paul keeps the console on for the entire series, the most egregious example being when he leaves the game alone for four hours, recording it the entire time, to fulfill TOOL's earlier request to keep watching the windmill.

* AbsenteeActor: Petscop 12 goes entirely without commentary from Paul, and it's implied that he's no longer playing the game during that part. Paul also does not speak at all from Petscop 15 through 21, [[spoiler:though we may have seen him as the red dot whose position is being tracked in Petscop 16, and he speaks again in 22 (although, considering the series' AnachronicOrder, it seems the events of that episode happen immediately after 10)]].

-->[-[[Main/TvTropesWillRuinYourLife TURN OFF TVTROPES]]-]

* SurrealSymbolicHeads: Paul encounters two other in-game entities who share his avatar's torso but have different heads. One is a seemingly unfinished, crudely drawn black and white girl's face, while the other is a strange green and black blob, who Paul identifies as Marvin. [[spoiler: Later episodes reveal that the player sees themselves as the default 'Guardian' head while others see them as their 'true' head. Paul has his own, which is a red triangle.]]

* RealityEnsues: In the first video/level, Paul tries to open an unopened door. But being that the PlayerCharacter is an ArmlessBiped, the textbox informs Paul that he cannot open doors. This happens again in Petscop 11, when he tries to open the door to enter the house.

* UnwinnableByInsanity: Generations 1 and 2 have no pause menu, no generation-changing events, and no way to exit Even Care, so if you load an Even Care save in one of those generations, you can't get back to the Newmaker Plane without switching generations or manually loading the scene through the console.

** In Petscop 1, Paul's note describes how to "walk downstairs and, in the bottom, turn right instead of proceeding" to become a "shadow monster man". Paul ignores this, instead repeating a cheat code to enter the Newmaker Plane. Eight videos later, [[spoiler:Paul finally tries the original instructions in the entrance to the lower level of the barn and becomes a LivingShadow, allowing him to progress into the windmill]].

** In Petscop 13, we get the reveal that [[spoiler:Roneth is Toneth's baby half brother. We also get the even more shocking reveal that Toneth was hit by a car in one of the most chilling lines in the series during Roneth's description]].

* CentralTheme: The game has heavy themes of child abuse, especially in adopted families, and the monstrosity of it. In particular, the game seems to target those who believe adopting children is the same thing as getting a pet that must obey your every command.

* ZeroEffortBoss: The giant object at the top floor of the school with several pieces spinning around it is apparently an in-game boss going by the subtitles (which refer to the noises it makes as "boss noises"), but it never attacks Paul or even moves, and Paul is able to "beat" it just by pressing the interact button once. The game has no combat system to speak of as it is a puzzle exploration game, so this is justified, but it is odd that the creator would call this thing a boss at all.

-->[-TURN OFF TVTROPES-]